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Crowded prisons cost lives: the Italian prison crisis seen from the UK

  • Writer: Open Justice
    Open Justice
  • Jun 8, 2025
  • 8 min read

Updated: Jun 9, 2025

In March, we looked at what might be learned from a comparison between the prison systems of England and Wales and the Spanish region of Catalonia, where around 25% of prisoners are in open prisons, and recidivism rates are dramatically lower than those in the UK.

 

While comparing systems internationally is never simple, it can offer new perspectives on the UK Criminal Justice System (CJS), which is now locked in a perma-crisis of prison overcrowding and the chronic failure to meet its own rehabilitative aims. Catalonia’s more flexible, community-based model, which we identified as a “softer” approach to criminal justice, shows how placing low-risk prisoners in open units can help them reintegrate into society more successfully. “Soft” does mean less serious or less effective. On the contrary, the Catalonian model demonstrates that prioritising reintegration can significantly reduce instances of re-offending while relieving pressure on overburdened prisons.

 

Italy’s prison system is in deep crisis. Like the UK, it faces high incarceration rates, overcrowding, and poor living conditions. The national prison rights group and observatory Antigone warns that the Italian system is nearing collapse, especially as new “security” laws may lead to further criminalisation. Despite the fact that Italy’s constitution, like Spain’s, enshrines rehabilitation as a goal of sentencing, [1] recent political rhetoric has shifted the focus toward harsher punishment—a move that risks causing even more strain, violence, and instability within the system.

 

On 29th May, Antigone released its 21st annual report on conditions within the prison system in Italy. Titled Senza respiro (Without breath), the report makes for grim reading. What emerges is a picture that will be disturbingly familiar to anyone aware of the parallel crisis in the UK prison system: dangerous and intolerable levels of overcrowding, aggravated by the expansion of criminal sentencing for public disturbance, and an inadequate investment in facilities that are no longer fit for purpose.

 

The Antigone report is of interest due to the numerous striking similarities between the crisis of prison overcrowding now prevalent in both Italy and the UK. Whereas the comparison with the Catalonian model allowed us to reflect on possible alternatives to mass incarceration, the Antigone report provides further evidence, were it needed, of the devastating harm that overcrowding causes to people in prison, and the longstanding political neglect which has led to such conditions.

 

Drawing on the Antigone report, we highlight here three significant parallels between the CJS in the UK and Italy: overcrowding, increased criminalisation and harsher sentencing, and the staffing crisis, as well as the political decisions that underpin them. This comparison, particularly when combined with research into alternative models of justice, is an invitation to reflect on the origin and effects of the well-documented failures within the UK CJS.

 

Overcrowding and its consequences for prisoners’ mental health

 

As in England and Wales, the crisis of prison overcrowding in Italy is acute and shows no sign of abating. The rate of overcrowding in Italian prisons stands at 133%, a little higher than that of England and Wales. [2] Fifty-eight Italian prisons currently have a rate of overcrowding of over 150%. Meanwhile, the prison population continues to grow at a rate of around 300 prisoners every two months. As the report makes clear, meeting this rise through greater capacity would mean constructing 6 new prisons each year: an exorbitant cost which would only allow the system to keep pace with the runaway rise of prisoner numbers.

 

These are the raw figures. As the editorial to the Antigone report notes, the system can no longer breath. [3] What is the consequence of this on the lives of those living inside prison? As in the UK, a lack of adequate space, understaffed facilities, and cramped cells means an increased use of lockdown and a curtailment of freedoms within prisons. In such circumstances, the rates of self-harm and suicide among prisoners are continuing to rise in Italy (by 4.1% and 9.3% respectively), as in the UK, particularly within the institutions where overcrowding is most acute. [4] In 2024, Italy recorded the highest number of suicides in prison in its history: 91 prisoners took their own lives.

 

In both countries, the rise in prison suicides cannot be separated from systemic issues. The Antigone report describes how these structural problems put the psychological well-being of inmates at risk: 

 

Although healthcare is formally guaranteed by the National Health Service and falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, this right is routinely neglected. Prisons are often described as “pathogenic” environments that not only harm the psychological well-being of inmates but also worsen their physical health. Structural problems in the prison system—such as overcrowding, the lack of adequate spaces for physical activity, insufficient medical staff, and irregular access to treatment—create conditions that are detrimental to the protection of health. Facilities are inadequate, staffing is insufficient, and access to external hospital care involves long waiting times, made worse by the chronic shortage of prison officers needed to escort inmates. [5]

This is an environment where inmates may experience heightened stress and inadequate care, significantly increasing the risk of self-harm and suicide. As we have already detailed in our report on the failures of healthcare provision within the CJS in England and Wales, there is an evident connection between increasing rates of overcrowding and suicide rates. Crowded prisons cost lives.

 

Harsher sentencing laws and increased criminalisation


Despite clear warning signs that the prison system is nearing collapse, the Italian government has pushed forward with a series of harsh legal measures that echo the UK’s failed “tough-on-crime” policies. This includes the recent approval of the DDL Sicurezza (Security Bill) by the Italian Senate. Much like the UK’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act of 2022, the new legislation imposes stricter penalties for a range of offences, criminalises certain forms of protest, and expands the powers of law enforcement.


The DDL Sicurezza reflects a broader shift towards punitive justice in Italy, aligning with similar trends observed in other countries. [6] While the Italian Government asserts that the legislation is necessary to maintain public order and deter criminal activity, a growing chorus of human rights organizations and legal experts has voiced concerns about its potential to infringe on civil liberties and disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. [7] 


We already know the effects of “tougher” sentencing in the UK. Since 2010, the average custodial sentence (excluding life and indeterminate sentences) increased from 13.7 months to 20.6 months by March 2024. For less serious offences, the average sentence length rose from 16.2 months in 2010 to 22.9 months in 2024. As a result, prisons are filled with people who could otherwise have served less harmful, non-custodial sentences. In current circumstances, harsher sentencing not only causes unnecessary distress for individuals but also, given the criminogenic nature of institutions that have been stripped of their rehabilitative function, makes all of us less safe in the long run. 


In Italy, the introduction of the DDL Sicurezza is expected to further burden the CJS by increasing the inmate population through the criminalization of previously non-custodial offenses. New offenses have been established for organizing or participating in riots within prisons and migrant detention centers. As the Antigone report makes clear, even passive resistance in these settings could now lead to imprisonment of up to eight years:


In summary, if three inmates sharing an overcrowded cell or held in undignified prison conditions refuse to obey an officer’s order—even in a non-violent manner—it will be classified as the crime of “riot,” carrying a potential prison sentence of two to eight years for the promoters, organizers, or leaders, and one to five years for participants. [8]

It is as though the new legislation foresees that rising tensions within prisons will become intolerable. Rather than attempting to maintain order through improved conditions, support services, or rehabilitation, the law opts instead to criminalise inevitable expressions of frustration and protest. In doing so, it risks creating a vicious cycle—where deteriorating conditions provoke unrest, and that unrest is met with harsher punishment, further overcrowding, and deepening crisis.


The staffing crisis 

 

A boom in the prison population inevitably alters the rapport between those who work in prison and those who are imprisoned. As of 2024, the HM Prison Service in England and Wales employed around 23,000 prison officers—a ratio of 1 officer to every 3.8 inmates. This represents a significant decrease in staffing numbers when compared to 2010 (1 officer to 3.5 inmates), and the lowest staffing levels on record. [9]

 

Italy's prison system is also grappling with a severe staffing crisis that exacerbates the crisis of overcrowding and deteriorating conditions. As of mid-2024, there was a shortfall of nearly 7,000 prison guards, representing a 16% deficit in the required workforce. [10] This shortage places immense strain on existing staff, leading to increased stress levels and compromising the effective management of penitentiary institutions.

 

In response, the Italian government enacted legislation aimed at improving prison conditions. This includes authorizing the recruitment of 1,000 additional penitentiary police officers and management staff to bolster security and operational efficiency. However, the Antigone report makes clear that such measures remain ineffectual when faced with the spiralling levels of prison overcrowding. While the ratio of prison officers to prisoners (1:2) is higher in Italy than in England and Wales, there are extreme shortages of staff in certain Italian regions. [11]

 

The Italian picture becomes more bleak once we take into account the number of educational staff. Chronic understaffing means that those occupying educational roles are often unable to carry out their work in a regular or impactful way. The Antigone report is clear on what this means for the lived experience of those in prison: overcrowded conditions and a lack of access to meaningful rehabilitative programmes “transforms prisons into powder kegs”, in which massive and indiscriminate use of closed conditions pushes prisoners towards drastic, sometimes life-threatening, measures in protest. In 2024, compared to 2023:


  • Hunger and/or thirst strikes increased by 35% in absolute terms;

  • Refusal of food and/or medical treatment rose by 21%;

  • Refusal to return to cells increased by 64%;

  • Disruptive acts “affecting order and security” (a broad category with often unclear boundaries) increased by 72%. [12]


To address these crises meaningfully, governments must reconsider what kind of staffing best supports rehabilitation. Rather than expanding security forces alone, investment should be directed toward hiring professionals who can foster pathways out of the criminal justice system. Prisons should be staffed not merely for containment, but for transformation. Without this shift in priorities, overcrowded institutions will continue to be sites of distress and despair, rather than places where rehabilitation and reintegration are possible.


Antigone’s recommendations


As in the UK, the crisis in overcrowding calls for immediate measures in order to save lives. Antigone’s report includes the following proposals for immediate action from the Italian Government:


  • Early release of the just over 17,000 inmates who have less than two years of their sentence left to serve.

  • A ban on imprisonment to be introduced—except in exceptional cases—if there is no standard (lawful) prison space available. [13]


It is unlikely that these proposals will be heeded by the current government. Despite this, Antigone’s report offers not just a diagnosis, but a lifeline to those suffering in intolerable prison conditions. We support its call for urgent, bold action to reduce overcrowding and to protect the dignity and lives of people in prison.


Clemency, alternative sentencing, and an end to unlawful detention conditions are not radical demands. They are necessary, humane responses to a crisis that is costing lives. By looking beyond national borders, we can learn from both the failures and the innovations of other systems.


If Catalonia can show us what’s possible when we reach for alternatives to incarceration, and Italy warns us of what’s at stake when prisons cease to function, then we in the UK must ask: what kind of justice system do we want to build—and who does it serve?



A precise definition of“exceptional cases” is not given. 

 
 
 

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